Alexa Parrino escaped a life of servitude and survived danger on the streets to become one of the most trusted, influential people in Sector Four, where the O’Kanes rule with a hedonistic but iron fist. Lex has been at the top for years, and there’s almost nothing she wouldn’t do for the gang…and for its leader. Lie, steal, kill—but she bows to no one, not even Dallas O’Kane.

He’ll settle for nothing less.

Dallas fought long and hard to carve a slice of order out of the chaos of the sectors. Dangers both large and small threaten his people, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. His liquor business is flourishing, and new opportunities fuel his ambition. Lex could help him expand his empire, something he wants almost as much as he wants her. And no one says no to the king of Sector Four.

Falling into bed is easy, but their sexual games are anything but casual. Attraction quickly turns to obsession, and their careful dance of heady dominance and sweet submission uncovers a need so deep, so strong, it could crush them both.Review: I thought that the first novel in this erotica series was good, but this one is even better. There are many books that can make me get lost inside their worlds and live along with the main characters, but there are not many books that involve me so deeply that they make me cry when things go south. This book made me cry, and that’s an achievement for something within a genre which is purported to be all about sex.

With that said, don’t think for a moment that the erotica tag on this is incorrect, or that the book is bland on the sexy side. It is every bit as filthy, debauched and deliciously uninhibited as the first novel. The highlight is a session involving two women and four men, centred on the pleasure of one of the women, and it’s searingly hot.

Beyond Control follows on directly from Beyond Shame, where Noelle and Jasper ended up becoming a couple in the fashion of the O’Kane gang, meaning they’ve been tattooed with each other’s names for all to see. This novel focuses on the gang’s leader, Dallas, and his unofficial queen Lex. Theirs is a constant push and pull of power, control, submission, obedience, desire and need, and the balance is becoming ever more precarious. Dallas, as the gang’s leader, cannot be seen to be defied by anyone, but Lex is not prepared to comply like everyone else, or at least not all the time, and certainly not just because Dallas expects it. These are two supremely strong personalities, and inevitably they clash.

Their interactions are played out against the aftermath of the previous book, in which Dallas had to kill the leader of the neighbouring Sector Three. This sector is now in chaos, and its fate is to be decided by the leaders of the remaining seven sectors. The balance of power here is just as precarious as within Sector Four, because all sectors are in essence rivals of each other, and there is always the threat of the city of Eden in the middle, which will not hesitate to stamp out any sector if it gets too successful or ambitious. The opportunities and dangers all of this presents are both a challenge, a temptation and a headache for Dallas, and Lex has to deal with him as well as his ambitions for both himself and her – ambitions which don’t necessarily align with her own.

When everything inevitably blows up in their face it hurts them, everyone around them, and the reader. I’ll say it again: I cried.

If you want your erotica with depth to it, and with relationships every bit as real and complicated as in the best romance novels, you cannot go wrong with this series. These people care about each other, and the only difference with ordinary romance is that they show it by having dirty, no-holds-barred, exhibitionist sex that’s every bit as sizzling as the best I’ve read before. I was gutted to discover that the next book in this series, Beyond Pain, has not been published yet.